Archive

Take one copyrighted AP photograph of Obama and flip it. Then posterize it and create an iconic work of art – the artist Fairey’s Obama Hope poster. Then take the idea and create an Assange poster.

The evolution of hope…

The idea is brilliant. It’s an image that everyone recognizes, and suggests that our hope for the future is no longer Obama and what he stands for but Assange and what he stands for.

But there’s a problem. AP sued Fairey for copyright infringement. And Fairey himself has issued a cease-and-desist notice to another artist he termed a ‘parasite’. This image has a history, and the protagonists know the law.

Now, I don’t know who ‘created’ the Assange poster. But it’s clearly ‘trading off’. And I do know who’s been distributing it. Forsaking the traditional walls and telegraph poles, 0x00x00 has been using other people’s websites as his whiteboard.

Pissing off SOCA by hacking websites is one thing – but pissing off The Rightsholders is an altogether more dangerous tactic.

Security: do as I say, not as I doWhile the role of the CISO is increasingly recognized – usually reporting directly to the board and sometimes sitting on the board – the problems it faces is highlighted by a new Cryptzone survey: security policy doesn’t apply to senior management.
25 May 2012

TheWikiBoat’s OpNewSon fires todayTheWikiBoat, a new hacking group that uses techniques and tools similar to Anonymous, but for the lulz rather than the principle, plans to launch its first major operation, #OpNewSon, today.
25 May 2012

Google describes the winning hack at PwniumEach year the CanSecWest conference runs the pwn2own hacking contest against leading browsers: Chrome, Firefox, IE and Safari. This year Google withdrew its sponsorship and set up its own Chrome specific contest: Pwnium, an extension of the Chromium Security Rewards program.
24 May 2012

Clueful – an app to describe app behaviorEarlier this year social networking company Path was hauled over the coals by both users and Apple for automatically uploading users’ iPhone address books. This, says Apple, is “in violation of our guidelines.”
24 May 2012

FCC’s net neutrality rules may be tested by VoIPBad blood in a local dispute in Georgia leads to request for the FCC to proceed “with corrective action as required or as deemed necessary… to protect the national and global interest of the public and the internet application industry alike.”
24 May 2012

Monday Mail Mayhem: Anonymous dumps 1.7GB from the DoJMonday Mail Mayhem was this week launched by Anonymous starting with the Pirate Bay dump of a 1.7GB database stolen from the Department of Justice, and the release of the traditional Anonymous video announcement.
23 May 2012

Before I go further I need to offer thanks to three sources. Firstly, to Monica Horten at the excellent IPtegrity blog who saw the connection. Secondly to the genius of Richard O’Brien who penned such a prescient prophesy. And thirdly to the authors of ACTA, without whom – well, I wish we were without whom.

The story reported by Monica is the jump to the left in the European Parliament (socialist rapporteur says he recommends that ACTA be rejected) followed by the step to the right (EPP Sarkozy-ite delays things to buy more time for the rightsholder lobbyists to regroup) – and it was Monica who made the connection with Richard O’Brien. (I’ve reported the ‘news’ side of this story on Infosecurity Mag) “ACTA: EU Parliament takes a step to the right,” is Monica’s headline. “It took a jump to the left…” is the first line.

“It’s just a jump to the left And then a step to the right” is the source in Richard O’Brien’s phenomenal Time Warp song from The Rocky Horror Picture Show. What I hadn’t realised is quite how accurate those lyrics turn out to be.

Hollywood/government lays out its intention for the internet: It’s astounding, time is fleeting – Madness takes its toll – But listen closely, not for very much longer – I’ve got to keep control

But users are lost in their own, innocent, dreamy vision of the internet: It’s so dreamy, oh fantasy free me – So you can’t see me, no not at all

This is such a romantic view of freedom and the internet! But Hollywood/government responds: In another dimension, with voyeuristic intention – Well-secluded, I see all – With a bit of a mind flip – You’re there in the time slip – And nothing can ever be the same

This is O’Brien at his most prophetic. Hollywood/government wishes, from a hidden point of view, to see everything that happens on the internet. And once they succeed, nothing will ever be the same again.

O’Brien goes on to foretell what will happen. The user concludes: Well I was walking down the street just a-having a think – When a snake of a guy gave me an evil wink – He shook me up, he took me by surprise – He had a pickup truck and the devil’s eyes. – He stared at me and I felt a change – Time meant nothing, never would again.

Hollywood/government wins. The Time Warp itself? They will just keep cycling round in a time warp, time and time again, until they succeed. Just beware when that snake of a guy gives you an evil wink – and make sure you never vote for him again!

The first is available via TVShack.net, the site owned (long ago) by Richard O’Dwyer and now pwned by the ICEmen. Go there. You’ll find the ICEmen’s takedown notice. But hang around for a minute (well, about 10 seconds) and they’ll force a video on you.

It’s a nICE video. It explains how piracy is stealing money from creators and costing jobs. It’s compelling, but ultimately unrewarding. It gives no figures, no costs, no proof.

So then you must watch the second video. This one is hosted on that great underground TEDsite. It fills in the gaps. The numbers behind the Copyright Math explains scientifically why and how piracy is costing the economy and those nice entertainment industry people so many billions.

Digital Crime: Fourth great era of organized crimeOrganized digital crime is growing – but we still know little about the structure of organized digital crime groups. A new report from BAE Detica Systems and the John Grieve Centre for Policing and Security at London Metropolitan University seeks to change this.
28 March 2012

2600 to broadcast interview with Richard O’Dwyer’s mother2600 is one of the world’s longest running ‘hacker’ publications. Richard O’Dwyer is a UK citizen likely to be deported to the US for operating the website TVShack.net and providing links to ‘copyright infringing’ material.
28 March 2012

PwC report highlights senior management complacency about securityFinancial services are, not surprisingly, increasingly subject to economic cybercrime. According to a report from PwC, cybercrime is now second only to asset misappropriation as the most popular way of defrauding an organization in the financial services (FS) sector.
27 March 2012

Security concerns delay deployment of NGDCsA survey from Crossbeam Systems shows that 94% of IT personnel identify network security as the main cause for stalled next generation data center (NGDC) deployments.
27 March 2012

The new Oxford Cyber Security CentreFinal proof of the extent to which information security has become embedded within society comes from Oxford university, Home of the Humanities. The university has announced a new Oxford Cyber Security Centre.
27 March 2012

Microsoft takes control of 800 domains associated with Zeus botnetsIn a major action against the banking trojan Zeus, Microsoft with FS-ISAC and NACHA and research from Kyrus Tech and F-Secure have succeeded in disrupting a number of the most harmful Zeus botnets in “in an unprecedented, proactive cross-industry action.”
26 March 2012

Privacy: the great EU/US debateThe two great western trading blocs are taking personal privacy very seriously. In January the EU published a draft proposal for a new Data Protection Regulation, and in February the White House released its privacy blueprint, including the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights.
22 March 2012

Dame Fiona Caldicott to review patient data confidentialityThe people currently responsible for protecting the confidentiality of patient information in the UK are known as the Caldicott Guardians, so named after Dame Fiona Caldicott. Dame Fiona will now lead a new independent review into patient privacy.
22 March 2012

The music industry has won its case against the ISPs in the High Court. Of course, it wasn’t targeted at the ISPs (they didn’t ‘defend’ themselves), it was targeted at The Pirate Bay. The music industry wants the ISPs to block access to The Pirate Bay (I’ve written about it on Infosecurity Magazine: It is confirmed: The Pirate Bay is a pirate). They’ve won, and TPB will almost certainly be blocked by UK ISPs come this summer.

TPB sails off into the sunset, right?

It’s all very contorted logic and all pretty pointless. The Pirate Bay doesn’t host the files in question; so how are they logically guilty of breaching copyright? It is because they facilitate and even encourage the act. But how is that really different from a motor manufacturer who advertises, boasts about, and sells a motor car capable of exceeding the legal speed limit? Is the motor industry equally guilty of facilitating and encouraging breaches of the speeding laws?

The ISPs absented themselves from the argument. Their position is that they will do what they’re told. That’s sad. I had hoped that they would fight tooth and nail for their customers. I used Pirate Bay just recently to look at a copy of the supposed correspondence between Symantec and the pcAnywhere hacker. As a journalist, I didn’t merely have a right to do that, I had a duty to do that – so I don’t believe I broke the law in doing it, nor that TPB broke the law in allowing me to do that. But lawful use of TPB by lawful users is going to be penalised because of the unlawful acts of copyright infringers downloading from somewhere else.

It’s just that TPB is the easy target. Prosecuting individual downloaders is more difficult and more expensive even if more logical. So instead, the solution is to prevent everyone, lawful and unlawful, gaining access to TPB for both lawful and unlawful purposes. When you use a sledgehammer to crack a walnut, you generally end up smashing the nut as well as the shell.

And, as I said, it’s all so pointless. Righard Zwienenberg, a senior research fellow with ESET in The Netherlands, gave me the Dutch experience.

In The Netherlands, he told me, two of the largest ISPs, Ziggo and XS4All, are required by court order to block TPB. They are appealing (which is more than I can say for the music industry – or even the UK lilly-livered ISPs; but I digress). For now, the blockade stays on PirateBay.org and its (pre-listed) IP numbers. Smaller ISPs were pressured to join the blockade, but declined.

“And of course,” says Righard, “the block does not work.” Using a foreign proxy or TOR will simply bypass the blockade. “We also suddenly have PirateBay.nl, PiratenBay.nl/org, and others that are all identical copies of the original PirateBay.org, and that are not blocked as they do not belong to PirateBay.org. So their IP numbers do not fall under the verdict of the court.”

Righard believes that this sort of action does little to help prevent piracy, and nothing to promote the music industry. “There are so many other Torrent sites to use. And the site itself does not carry any illegal content. It’s more like the ads section of a newspaper. If I want to sell my old vinyl records, will the newspaper first check if they are not stolen? If I want to sell music tapes, will they check if they are original or copies?”